The Time Needed
by MariaWest
Summary: Wally and Artemis found out that they're friends have pretty inconvenient ways of problem solving.


**Disclaimer:** I do no own Young Justice

**Author's Note:** So, here's story 2/2 for brella's birthday. I really got carried away with this birthday present, I'm sorry. To be fair, I'm unemployed so I have a lot of time to write. This was a lot of fun to write and it was a joy writing it for someone I really admire. I could gush on and on for a while about her, but I'll save that for just her. Anyways, happy birthday dear! I hope you enjoy these.

* * *

The moment they got back from Europe, M'gann insisted on having a Christmas party. To be fair, the Martian had never had Christmas before so no one blamed her for the enthusiasm. So they all agreed that on the twenty-eighth they would throw it. They had nothing to worry about, the girl promised to have it all ready for them, though the looks on Conner's and Zatanna's faces showed they knew they'd end up helping with set up.

So when the twenty-eighth came, Wally stepped out of the zeta tube dreading the night to follow. He tried to find an excuse to not go but M'gann had been adamant on his presence at the party asking who would eat all the food if not him. He finally agreed to go, though he would have felt better about it all if he knew Artemis wasn't going to be there. But the girl had been keen on coming, as if to prove recent events didn't change anything about the team dynamic.

"_You've got nothing to prove, not to me. Okay?"_

Wally punched the wall he was now standing beside and groaned. He rubbed his bruising hand, frowning. He didn't understand how everything had gotten ruined. They had spent months together, building a friendship, building up respect, building a relationship. Now it was all gone. Thrown down the drain because one night. His fingers glided across the already dark purple on his hand. He knew tomorrow that it would almost be gone, but it was still annoying in the moment.

"Wally, you made it!" the Martian's voice rang from the doorway ahead of him. He looked up and smiled. "Come on, everyone's here already.

"On my way," he answered before appearing next to her. "Sorry I'm late, next time I'll get her in a flash."

M'gann rolled her eyes as they walked into their now transformed common area. The walls were decorated with as many Christmas decorations as possible and there was a small but full Christmas tree by the television. Streamers danced along the ceiling as tinsel twirled around it. There was an assortment of food on the counter accompanied with a wide range of drinks.

"Wow Megs, this looks amazing," Wally said, beaming.

"Thank you, Wally," she answered before floating off to her boyfriend.

The speedster looked around the room for his best friend. To his disappointment, the younger boy was talking to the one person he needed to avoid. Frowning he walked over to the counter and grabbed bowl of chips.

"Gonna save any for us?" a voice asked behind him. He glanced to see who the speaker was and rolled his eyes. Zatanna smirked. "Hey, it's a fair question."

"Nah, I thought I'd spoil the party and eat everything. You know, contrary to popular belief, I can eat like a civilized person, I just generally choose not to," he answered.

"Mhmm."

"Want a chip?" Wally asked, holding the bowl out to her. "You know, before I turn into a vacuum."

"No, it's okay. I'm not hungry. Anyway, want to talk about it?" the girl asked now leaning against the counter.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do," Zatanna said. "There's tons of evidence to support that you do in fact know what I'm talking about. You like evidence right, Science Boy?"

"Oh, is there?" Wally asked, knowing he was just playing along with the girl's plan.

"Oh yes. There's the fact that you won't go over to your best friend because of who he's talking to. There's the fact that you were late to the party, not just a little late mind you, like, really late. And then there's the fact your hand is super bruised. What did you punch?" she listed off. She smirked as the older boy let out a sigh, shoving his hand into his pocket.

"A wall," he muttered, placing the bowl back on the counter. "And no, I don't want to talk about it. There's nothing to talk about."

"Wally…"

"Look, I get that we're all a team and that what's going on might not be for the best, but that doesn't change anything. She lied, she screwed up, she made a mess of things," the ginger said, the bruised fist in his pocket clenching. "I don't care what anyone thinks, there's nothing to talk about."

Before the girl could say anything more, Wally walked away from her. He made his way over to the couch and sat down, staring at the lights on the tree. He grabbed a bowl of red and green M&Ms from the coffee table but didn't eat any. He just continued to start at the tree, trying to ignore the rest of the party. He felt bad, but this month has been a bad mood continuously building on itself. He began to wonder if the other reason Dick didn't invite on the circus mission him was to avoid dealing with him and Artemis.

"Hey, Wally," a voice said suddenly next to him. The boy looked up to a green face floating next to his. M'gann smiled. "Can you do me a huge favour? Can you run to the closet with the board games in it and grab us Monopoly?"

"I don't know, Megs, playing that game with Rob sucks," he answered, grinning at her. "It's almost like he's stupidly good with money or something. Ow!"

Both gingers turned their heads around to Dick who was smirking across the room. Wally looked down behind him and saw a plastic ornament lying on the ground.

"Seriously dude?" he shouted at his younger friend.

"Sorry, I was completely not aiming for your head, I guess I missed," the boy wonder called over to him.

"Yeah, missed…" the ginger grumbled. He places the bowl of M&Ms back on the table and stood up, rubbing his head. "Yeah, I'll go get the game."

"Thank you, Wally!" the Martian said before making her way back to whatever she was doing before.

Sighing, the speedster took his time heading of to the closet in question. It was in a different room and, to be honest, he welcomed the escape. It still didn't take him long to reach the place, but who said he couldn't take a long time looking for the game and maybe deciding on a second game to bring?

He was standing in the closet reading over the names of all the other boards games when he heard a sound behind him. He turned and frowned. Artemis was standing in the doorway of the closet, eyes wide.

"Oh… sorry, I didn't know someone was grabbing the game already," she said quickly.

"Yeah. Wait, M'gann asked you to get a game too?" Wally asked just before the girl seemed to be pushed into the closet. Suddenly the closet door slammed and all they could hear was a familiar cackle. "Are you serious?"

"Did the rest of the team just lock us in here?" Artemis said, the colour draining from her face. Wally slumped against the back wall of the closet and slowly made his way to the floor. "I'm going to kill them."

The girl glanced at the ginger and then leaned against the door of the closet. Sighing, she sat down and brought her knees to her chest.

"So we shouldn't even bother with the door, right? Robin definitely has that sealed or something," Wally said, smiling faintly. The girl just shrugged and turned her head away from him. "Really, you're going to just ignore me? I get we aren't on the best of terms right now, but we're kind of stuck in here until Rob stops being a dick."

Artemis just continued to look away from him, hugging her knees now.

"Fine, whatever. We can sit in here all night. It'll be your fault when I start to starve," the boy muttered, crossing his arms.

They sat in silence as minutes went by, the tension in the room basically palpable. Wally began to count the random spots on the walls, trying to find anything to occupy him. Every now and then he would glance at Artemis, though she never seemed to glance in his direction. He wasn't sure who annoyed him more at this point, her or his now ex-best friend. He decided that once he got out that he would definitely look for a replacement to Dick.

He glanced at his watch and sighed. It had been twenty minutes for sitting in silence with only their thoughts as company and he wasn't sure if he could take it much more. Rubbing the back of his head, Wally looked over to the girl trapped with him.

"Look, Artemis," he said, fearing for his safety with every word that came out of his mouth, "we're aren't going to get out of here unless we talk. I mean these are our friends we're talking about. M'gann probably saw this on that 'Hello Megan!' show, while Robin and Zatanna are doing this for kicks. Zat ambushed me with questions earlier."

"Robin asked me a bunch as well," Artemis said. She had turned her head to him, though she wouldn't meet his gaze. "What did she ask you?"

"Uh… you know, if I wanted to talk about stuff. Nothing really actually, forget I said that," the boy mumbled, covering up his bruised hand before the other captive saw it. "But seriously, I think we should try to talk about whatever is going on between… us."

"Well, go ahead. You're the one that's angry," the girl said, crossing her arms.

"Are you serious? Of course I'm angry you lied to me! Why wouldn't I be angry? Artemis, the mission tanked and then it turned out it was because you were what, afraid we'd kick you off the team because of Roy? Did all those months together not convince you we all cared about you?" Wally demanded.

"Cared? What, does everyone not care anymore?" she asked quietly.

"I know they all still care about you. Me on the other hand, I honestly don't know at the moment," he answered, standing up. He turned away from her, unsure of what to say at this point. He wanted to tell her that everything he had said on the bioship weeks ago still meant something to him. He wanted to let her know that this month has been one of the worst of his life and he wasn't sure which one of them he blamed at this point. He just wanted to ask why. "Look, forget it, this wasn't a good idea, let's just not talk."

"Wally… everyone else has forgiven me, what do you want me to do?" Artemis asked, standing up. She didn't uncross her arms, though when he looked at her, her face was softer now.

"Just tell me why you lied," he said, turning to face her fully. "Was it really because you're that insecure?"

Artemis opened her mouth then closed it. She looked down, and Wally knew that was all he was going to get. Sighing, he stepped over to the door.

"Hey, Rob! If you don't let me out of here right now I'm going to tell Artemis everything, and I mean everything. How will your boss like that?" he shouted, ignoring the girl's confused face. Soon the door opened and Wally walked out very quickly, grabbing the board game the led him into this mess. He looked at this shorter friend who was smirking. "Dude, you are so going to pay for this."

Wally quickly made his way back to the main room. He walked over to M'gann and handed her the board game, "Sorry I took so long, M'gann. Apparently the closet door gets stuck."

M'gann blushed and hung her head as she accepted the game, "Wally, I'm sorry we honestly thought that it would help."

"Hey, it's no sweat. No one died," he said, trying not to get angry. He knew his temper had already wrecked one relationship on this team, he didn't need to ruin anymore. "Just for the record though, I wouldn't try that again. And don't ever listen to Robin."

The ginger spent the rest of the party pretending to be in a better mood. He participated in all the games M'gann had planned; he ate tons of food, laughed when necessary, and could easily say he was enjoying the majority of it by the end.

At the end of the night, he was wishing Zatanna a merry Christmas when he noticed Artemis heading towards the zeta-tubes. He excused himself and ran after the blonde.

"Artemis, wait!" he called after her. She stopped in the entrance of the tube and turned to him. He stopped right in front of her and instantly regretted his decision to follow after her. They stood in silence together, the ginger rubbing his head as the blonde put her hands on her hips. "Look, I need time. I felt like we were actually getting somewhere… in the more than just friends direction, and then that mission blew up. I just… I need time to figure this out, okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Wally, I'm sorry. I know that's not what you want to hear from me, but it's all I can give you," she said.

The boy nodded and looked up. He immediately wished he hadn't. Groaning, he looked back down at Artemis. She raised an eyebrow at him and looked up. She quickly looked back down, eyes wide.

They stood there frozen. Neither of them sure of what the next move was. Time seemed to slow down for Wally. It was excruciating. He could feel every second slowly go by. Everything seemed to be enhanced. He could feel Artemis breathing even though there was a space between them. He felt every single one of her movements. He breathed in through his nose and could smell a soft aroma of city and pine coming off her. He liked it. It suited her.

Blinking a few times, Wally caught her eyes and held them with his. They both seemed to have stopped breathing. As if an outside force was pushing him, the speedster slowly leaned forward, eyes drifting close. Artemis' eyes began to do the same and he could feel her own slight movement towards him.

"Hey, Wally, where are you? We need to head out unless you want you-know-who to ban you from staying over ever again," Dick called from one of the hallways that led away from the zeta-tubes.

The two teens quickly stepped away from each other, both now sporting a deep blush. They looked at each other before the ginger boy turned and started towards where his friend was.

"Wally wait," Artemis called. He stopped and looked back. She had taken a step forward and looked nervous, as if what she was going to say could ruin everything. "Look, the reason… The reason I lied…"

Wally turned and took a step back towards her, "Yeah?"

"Never mind," she said, quickly turning away from him. She punched a code into the zeta-tube before continuing, "you would probably overreact even more than before and ruin whatever it is we have left."

Wally stood still as the computerized voice announced Artemis' departed. The blonde disappeared just Dick walked into the room.

"You okay, dude?" the black haired boy asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Remind me to stay away from Artemis forever though," he answered, accepting his overnight bag from his friend. "She may be the most infuriating person I've ever met."

"Yeah, that's why you guys would be pretty great together," Dick said, patting his friend's back. "You two will work this out eventually."

Wally shrugged as the made their way over to zeta-tubes. Wally waited as Dick punched in the code for Gotham City. He wanted to argue that what happened between Artemis and him would not be easily fixed, but the ginger couldn't think of a reason why they wouldn't fix this. Sighing, he followed his friend into the tube and let the sensation of the transport take over, hurtling him onto the next great adventure (this one just happened to be arguing with Bruce Wayne on why it would be logical to let him stay over the whole winter break).


End file.
